RESEARCH
Global Battery Storage Passed 100 GW in 2025 -- Trackers Split Between 106 GW and 112 GW
Three of the industry's most-cited trackers all confirm 2025 was a record year for grid battery storage, but they land on different totals for how much capacity the world actually added. The IEA's Global Energy Review 2026 reports 108 GW, BloombergNEF's Energy Storage Market Outlook reports 112 GW, and Wood Mackenzie reports 106 GW -- a 6 GW spread across otherwise-aligned narratives of roughly 40-48% year-over-year growth. All three agree China added the most capacity and that utility-scale projects dominated deployment.
Findings
- IEA: Global Energy Review 2026 puts 2025 battery storage additions at 108 GW, up ~40% from 2024, exceeding the historical peak for gas-fired capacity additions (107 GW in 2002).
- BloombergNEF: Energy Storage Market Outlook 1H 2026 reports 112 GW / 307 GWh added in 2025, a 48% increase from 2024.
- Wood Mackenzie: reports 106 GW added in 2025, a 43% increase from 2024, taking cumulative global capacity to roughly 270 GW.
- All three trackers agree China led additions (~54-63% of the global total) and that utility-scale projects made up 80%+ of new capacity -- the disagreement is confined to the precise GW total, not the underlying trend.
Delta Engine result
↔ Divergence Detected — Δ 0.0765 (threshold 0.05)
- IEA T5 95
- BloombergNEF T2 92
- Wood Mackenzie T2 88
Evidence quality
avg 68.3 · min 55 · max 95 · spread 40